Look Who’s Praying Now
Democratic politicians will do anything to avoid confronting the failure of gun control laws or the rise of Jihadism
When Republican politicians offer “thoughts and prayers” to the families of the victims of campus shootings, Democrats deride them. “We need more than prayers,” they say. But now, in the wake of another campus shooting in a ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University, it is the state’s Democrats who are suddenly thinking and praying.
Attorney General Jay Jones posted on X: “My deepest thoughts and prayers go out to the Old Dominion community.” Governor Abigail Spanberger announced her prayers, too: “I am grateful for his example, deeply saddened by his death, and praying for his family.” Senator Mark Warner, showing the religious restraint of the Presbyterian he is, merely conveyed his thoughts, which is at least better than sending good vibes. State Sen. President Louise Lucas, the ruthless boss of all of them all, did not bother sending anything, but assured us her “heart is broken.” I mark it as a win to learn she has one.
So why is it that Virginia Democrats, who previously rushed to blame gun laws in the wake of tragic shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and in Virginia Beach in 2019, are not railing on our firearm statutes this time? Is it because gun laws do not work and this shooting proves it?
Before explaining this failure, let me be clear that I do not fault Jones and Spanberger for praying. I am a big believer in intercessory prayer. I am less fond of sending brain waves and expounded on that distinction in a prior column – PRAYERS AND CASSEROLES.
The shooter in Norfolk who killed ROTC instructor Lt. Col. Brandon Shah was a convicted terrorist who had been let out of jail early by Joe Biden’s administration. Terrorists are not supposed to get out of jail early, but he got rewarded for completing a substance abuse program in the clink. Do not ask me how getting off drugs cures jihadism; it is a conclusion only the woke-nut Biden administration could draw.
According to the Associated Press, the labor union representing federal corrections workers had stalled out the process of excluding terrorists from the get-out-of-jail-early program. Frustrated, President Donald Trump decided to cancel the union contract, and with it the union resistance, altogether.
You probably imagine that when I label Mohammed Jalloh, the ODU shooter, as a “convicted terrorist” I am stretching things a bit. Nope. In 2016 he was caught in an FBI sting at a Northern Virginia gun store trying to buy arms after pledging his loyalty to ISIS, and it was not his first attempt. He got an 11-year sentence, which seems awfully short for a jihadi, but not short enough for the Biden bureaucrats. Once out of jail, he re-enrolled at ODU, proving don’t-ask college admissions policies implemented by former Gov. Ralph Northam are equally idiotic.
Unable to own a gun legally or buy one commercially, the Department of Justice says Jalloh bought a handgun with a scratched off serial number from a man named Kenya Chapman, who knew Jalloh was an ex-convict. This is the same Chapman who in 2021 was investigated by the Biden administration for alleged straw purchases of three guns – meaning he deceptively bought guns on behalf of someone else. An affidavit says Chapman admitted to the straw purchases, and two of the three firearms were subsequently recovered from a homicide scene, according to the ATF.
Straw purchases are a federal crime and require lying on Form 4473, a felony itself. So what was Chapman’s punishment? The Biden Department of Justice let him off with a warning in exchange for an apology letter, according to Fox News’ federal sources.
To pull this all together, these documents and reports indicate the following: an admitted illegal gun runner got leniency to stay out of jail long enough to steal and fence a handgun, then sell it knowingly to a felon who could not legally own it, and should not have been out of prison for abetting terrorism, only to walk onto a gun-free campus and gun down an ROTC instructor, after shouting “Allahu akbar.”
Virginia Democrats ought to be embarrassed about the failure of a Democratic administration to enforce the gun laws that are on the books. On the left, soft-on-crime impulses trump law enforcement, even enforcement of gun laws that Democrats championed.
Jalloh was willing to break the law that prohibited him from owning a gun. Chapman was willing to break the law prohibiting him from fencing a gun. The only person who abided by gun laws in this tragedy is the dead ROTC instructor who was not allowed to be armed at his “gun free” state-owned workplace to defend himself.
This abject failure of government should cause Virginia Democrats to rethink the ridiculous gun and magazine ban they just passed in Richmond that will take effect July 1. It should cause them to demand Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats re-open the Department of Homeland Security when the homeland is under attack. It should cause them to confront jihadism. It should cause them to disavow their early prison release foolishness.
But it will not. At least it gets them to pray.
Plugging Prayers and Casseroles - The derision of pronouncing public commitments to pray has long stuck in my craw. I have experienced the value of intercessory prayer and lament that it is publicly acceptable in a country founded for the purpose of religious liberty to insult it. Consider this a second plug for my prior columns PRAYERS AND CASSEROLES. I also think you should check out Ryan Burge’s great Substack Graphs about Religion to get regular doses of statistics on the political polarization of religiosity, among other things.
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